


compassion passed down through generations

by princess_j3ss



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-03
Updated: 2017-03-03
Packaged: 2018-09-28 01:27:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10061753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/princess_j3ss/pseuds/princess_j3ss
Summary: A snapshot into what it was like growing up with the formidable Ice Queen as an older sister.





	

**Author's Note:**

> So this is a little thing for my friend ishvallas on tumblr, who mentioned wanting more of the Armstrong siblings! Ana you have been the most incredible and supportive friend over these past few months. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy, and feel free to drop a line and let me know what you think!

Alex Louis Armstrong had always been a perceptive man. Perhaps that was what made him so empathetic; the way in which he took in the world around him left room for him to notice the nuances in humanity.

There was nothing wrong, or even weak about having a gentle heart in a cruel world.

Above all else, family had always been a top priority for him, and he had always loved his elder sister. Admired her, worshiped her even. 

Olivier Armstrong had always been formidable, fierce and fearless. But what he really lived for were the small moments of brief affection, or even gave a rare smile. The times when she let those closest to her see past her fierce exterior, to the woman who had a compassionate heart.

A flood of memories brought a smile to his face.

After all, compassion had been passed down the Armstrong family for generations.

\---

Alex was five years old and he kept having nightmares. They were inconsequential enough that he could not have remembered them, all those years later, but consequential enough that they scared him up and out of bed.

If irony meant anything to a child, he would have noted the irony of the thunderstorm raging against their mansion.

Clutching his blanket in his trembling fingers, Alex crept out of his bed, pushed his door open, and all but ran down the hall, bursting into Olivier’s room which was the closest to his.

His sister was lounging gracefully on her bed, nose buried in a book.

“Sister!”

Olivier didn’t look up from her book. “What have I told you about knocking, Alex?”

Feebly, he took a step backwards and knocked on the inside of her door with a fist.

“Come in.”

“Olivier – I had a scary dream!”

Blue eyes flashed up from her book, and his sister had looked at him with a stony stare that was impossible to read.

“And you expect some sort of comfort, I assume?” She returned her attentions back to her book. “Go find Mother.”

“But Olivier!”

“Look at it rationally, Alex. A dream can’t cause you any physical harm, its only in your head.”

Alex jumped as a large crack of thunder boomed, and twisted his blanket between his fingers as he started to cry. “Can I maybe sit with you a while?”

Olivier shut her book with a snap. “No.”

Alex hung his head, sighed, and turned to face the door. “Okay.”

He was utterly surprised when he felt Olivier take his hand in hers; he hadn’t realized she had moved from her perch on her bed.

“Face your fears, Alex.”

Another boom of thunder cracked so loudly that even Olivier jumped.

Alex wondered if she ever felt afraid.

She led him back to his own room, and pointed to his bed. “I’ll sit with you for five minutes, and then you’re on your own.”

“Okay!” Alex beamed, leaping up onto his mattress as Olivier curled up with her book in one of the chairs beside his large wall of windows.

When he awoke in the morning, Olivier had fallen asleep in the chair.

\---

Alex was eight years old, and they were burying their childhood dog in the backyard.

He had been an old dog, he had a good life, but it was still tough to experience loss at such a young age, and tears streamed down his face as they stared at the tiny grave, marked by a wooden cross.

Stealing a glance at his elder sister, he was entirely shocked in his childish naivety to see that she wasn’t crying.

“Olivier? Aren’t you sad? Aren’t you going to miss him?”

Olivier let out a huff, the special kind that she saved for when he asked the ‘most incompetent’ (her words) questions.

“Yes, this is sad.”

“But then, why aren’t you crying?”

“He was an old dog, it was his time. Survival of the fittest, Alex.”

Alex frowned, wiping his cheeks.

Olivier sneered as she turned away, already halfway back to the house before she scoffed, “I don’t cry, Alex. It doesn’t solve problems, it only creates more.”

Later, he caught her putting flowers on the grave.

The flowers stayed fresh for weeks.

\---

Alex was twelve, and though he had always been large for his age, he couldn’t help when five older kids decided to gang up on him at once.

They had him on the ground with his arms pinned behind his back.

“What’s the matter, can’t get Daddy to come buy your way out of this?” They taunted.

Alex struggled, but it had been an unfair fight from the start.

And then, all weight was removed from his back, he heard grunts and the sound of flesh hitting flesh, and by the time he sat upright, Olivier had all five of the boys cowering under her gaze alone.

He couldn’t see what kind of a look she was giving them, but he knew that he would not have wanted to be on the receiving end of it.

When she spoke, her voice was low and threatening.

“I will count to three. And if by the time I get to three and you haven’t removed yourselves from my sight. I will not hesitate to kill you.”

The boys all scrambled to their feet.

She only had to count to one before they all disappeared from sight.

When she turned around, Alex scrambled to his feet, feeling a rush of admiration and respect for his sister.

Olivier already had the beginnings of a bruise forming underneath her right eye.

“Olivier!” Alex took a step towards her, but she held up her hand, and he fell silent.

“I don’t expect anything like this to ever happen again. But, if it does, I expect you’ll carry yourself with more dignity than you did today.”

Alex gaped at her, but recovered quickly. “Thank you, sister.”

Olivier sighed, turning around, and if he hadn’t trotted off after her, he would have missed her words entirely.

“Kindhearted people don’t survive in this world. I’m doing you a favor.”

What a sight they must have been, even though she was seven years his senior, he already towered over her. But there we was, tailing her like an eager puppy.

Besides, Olivier didn’t need height to be intimidating. Even as a teen, when she walked into a room, she commanded the attention of everyone inside it.

She didn’t speak to him for the rest of the day, but later that night, when Olivier thought he had fallen asleep on the couch, she covered him with a blanket and then crept off to bed.

Maybe he would learn alchemy, and then no one would be able to hurt him or his sister ever again.

\---

Alex was fifteen, and their entire family was in the waiting room of the Central hospital, waiting for their mother to give birth.

Labour sure took a long time.

Their father was pacing, Olivier was uncharacteristically bouncing her knee up and down. Only Alex was remaining relatively calm.

Finally, finally, after the longest wait of Alex’s short life, a nurse came out of the delivery room and announced happily, “Mr. Armstrong? You have a daughter.”

His father looked like he might pass out from joy, and even Olivier’s eyes were shining with joy.

Later, they crowded around his Mother and took turns holding the baby, each of them dabbing at their damp eyes as they handed the beautiful baby girl off between one another.

Olivier was the only one who didn’t cry – but she smiled, oh did she smile. It was beyond the rare amused lip curls that Alex was lucky enough to witness more than once. Olivier smiled so widely, Alex could see her teeth.

They all marveled as Olivier whispered to Catherine Armstrong in such a hushed voice that they could barely make out what she was saying.

Alex sided closer.

“You are forged out of iron and steel my perfect little sister. No one will touch a hair on your head as long as I’m around.”

It was the happiest Alex had ever seen her, and he burst into tears and left the room.

\---

Alex was sixteen and they were sitting at the long table in their formal dining room, his parents at one end, he and his sister at the other.

“Olivier Mira, be reasonable”, their mother started.

“I am being perfectly reasonable Mother.” Olivier leaned back in her chair, folding her arms across her chest, crossing ankle over knee.

“It has always been that Alex will take on the Armstrong inheritance.”

“But I’m the oldest!”

“And Alex is the male heir.”

Olivier growled as she swiveled to look at Alex, lip curling. He grimaced, shrugging.

“Mother, Father … the inheritance really should go to Olivier.”

“Nonsense, Alex Louis. You are to take over the family name, and Olivier is to marry a respectable man.”

Olivier stood up so suddenly that her chair knocked over behind her.

Growling, she stormed out of the room.

“Marry a respectable man”, echoed from the hallway, followed by the distinct sound of something shattering.

She had thrown a vase against a wall.

Olivier did the next best thing and applied to the military academy.

\---

Alex was a grown man, and he had just been given his promotion to State Alchemist.

The Strong Arm Alchemist, they called him.

Absolutely nothing compared to the reaction he got from his idolized elder sister.

In fact, when she came to congratulate him, he was almost certain he saw a twinkle of moisture collect in the corner of her right eye.

Was she?

She couldn’t be!

“Olivier? Are you-”

“QUIET”, she bellowed, and the blow he received was one harder than he had ever been dealt by her hand.

But it was worth it, to see his sister so proud of him to react in such a way he had never seen her react before.

-

Alex was now a grown man who had seen the real terrors and destruction of war. Soldiers followed orders. Good soldiers followed the command of their superiors and asked no questions.

He had brought shame upon himself and his family by deserting his post in Ishval, and it had put a real wedge in his relationship with his sister.

He feared their compromised relationship would never be fully mended.

“You know I don’t tolerate cowardice, Alex”, Olivier had sneered at him.

He visibly flinched, wishing she would yell, wishing she would hit him; but the quiet disappointment was all pervasive.

Something was broken.

You weren’t there! He wanted to shout at her. There was no honor in what we were doing! No morality in exterminating an entire group of humans like cockroaches!

But Alex Armstrong stayed silent as his sister – his sister he still loved and adored and idolized – brushed past him and out the door.


End file.
